Gold River project is the “common-sense solution”

via Jerry West

Coalition of B.C. Building Trade Unions News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

10 pm Wed. July 14, 2010

Four construction union leaders tell Metro Vancouver Board why the Gold River project is the “common-sense solution” to Metro’s growing garbage problem.

Building a waste to energy plant in Gold River on the west coast of Vancouver Island is “the common-sense solution to Metro Vancouver’s garbage problem,” leaders of BC’s building trade unions told the Metro Vancouver board Wednesday night.

Mark Olsen, head of the Coalition of BC Building Trade Unions, noted that plans to build waste to energy facilities in the Lower Mainland have attracted criticism out of fears about air quality.

“On the other hand the Village of Gold River, the First Nations leadership in the area, the regional district and the Vancouver Island Health Authority have all signed off on this project,” he said. “They want it in their community. In fact, by situating a Waste to Energy facility on Vancouver Island we an reduce truck traffic in the lower mainland and improve air quality in the Fraser Valley.”

Olsen said Covanta Energy, which currently operates the waste to energy facility in Burnaby, has extensive experience in this field, and is prepared to finance construction and operate the plant, which could be up and running in three years. They would bale and barge the solid waste from a facility they would build adjacent to the Fraser River.

If Gold River gets the nod, he said, the unions would sign a project labour agreement with Covanta Energy which would have provisions to hire local people, to hire First Nations People, to hire women, to hire young workers, and to provide apprenticeship and training programs for these workers.

Olsen said that aside from the good-paying union jobs the project would provide, the plant would use modern technology to ensure there is no harm to people or the environment.

Lionel Railton, President of the International Union of Operating Engineers, noted that recycling efforts and other programs designed to remove tons of material from the garbage stream are important first steps in dealing with the garbage crisis. “But after we’ve done everything we can, we’re still left with millions of tons of garbage needing disposal.”

Chris Feller, Business Manager of the Cement Masons Union said the choice really comes down to continued landfills or Waste to Energy plants. “If you’re against incineration, you’re in favour of landfills,” he said. “And if you favour landfills, that means you favor continued polluting of the ground water around Cache Creek, you condone continued pollution of the Fraser Valley airshed through 30,000 truck trips a year hauling garbage, and you turn your back on the science and the positive experience in Europe, where landfills are being banned and Waste to Energy plants are replacing them.”

Wayne Peppard, Executive Director of the BC and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council, said the jobs involved in the project would be important. “But jobs aside, these building trade unions support the Gold River project because it’s the best option for the Lower Mainland, for British Columbia, and for the planet.”